God has many ways of communicating with me. Sometimes He sends me dreams, and
other times He impresses messages upon my mind. He often speaks to me through
His word, and once in awhile, He uses my children!
This particular day, I had been given a task to do. I had gone out of my way to
accomplish it to the best of my ability, and then I had been criticized for not
doing it right. Needless to say, I was upset. I was still hurt when I got home,
and when I went up to see my boys, I was crying tears of frustrated anger.
I went into my younger son’s room first. He reached up and gave me a big hug. It
was as if he were trying to say: “I know you’re hurting, and though I don’t know
what to do about it, I’m here for you!” It didn’t get through to me, though, and
I was still crying when I went into my older son’s room.
He looked up at me. “Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“I turned on the lighthouse for you!”
I looked over at the blinking light on top of his 3-D jigsaw puzzle lighthouse.
I had an idea why he had turned the light on, but I refused to let it comfort
me.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Can’t Jesus help you to feel better?”
“Of course, honey,” I said. Then I squeezed back more tears as he prayed for me
and for the person who had hurt my feelings. It was touching, but I still
couldn’t pull myself out of my self-pity and despair, and I turned to go. On my
way out the door, however, the light from the lighthouse again caught my eye.
Then a voice resounded in my head: “I am the light of the world!”
Suddenly, everything disappeared, and I found myself spiralling down a dark
tunnel, headed for sure destruction. Then the voice again rang out in my mind:
“Look to the light!”
I looked up, and in the distance, I saw a speck of light. “Jesus?” I whispered.
“Is that You?”
As I focused my eyes on the speck, it grew until it overcame the darkness around
me. Then once again, I was in my son’s room, staring at the blinking light of
his 3-D jigsaw puzzle lighthouse. I began to smile, and my angry tears changed
to tears of joy. Jesus had been standing right beside me all the time, just
waiting to comfort me. It suddenly didn’t matter that I hadn’t received worldly
praise. My efforts hadn’t gone unnoticed by Jesus!
I wish I could say the battle ended there, but it didn’t. The next half an hour
was rocky, for my mind kept wanting to turn back to me and my problems. But I
kept focusing on the light—Jesus Christ—and I overcame.
Thank You, Jesus, for using my wonderful little boys to reach me when nothing
else could, and thank You for being my Light—the Light of the World!
Lyn Chaffart
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
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